Brick Lane Jazz Festival
London
April 26-28, 2024

The most innovative and thrilling jazz currently emerging from the UK is centred on a few grimy, narrow streets on the east side of London. The pioneering work that goes on in this elaborately-graffitied neighbourhood has, in recent years, contributed much to the creation of an identifiably "London" jazz sound, and the Brick Lane Jazz Festival was the place to hear it in all its glory.

The area is a hive of activity, dominated by the dozens of long-established Bangladeshi restaurants that line Brick Lane itself, but it is ethnically as diverse as anywhere in London. With its many rich musical traditions, this wide variety of immigrant cultures has blended to create the aforementioned jazz stew—and it is not for purists: latin, hip-hop, soul, reggae, and electronica are all essential ingredients.

2024 marked the event's third successful year, if by successful we mean that the venues were packed and the music was of a uniformly high standard. It all happened across ten venues on or near the sprawling site of the Truman Brewery, once the world's largest, and one of its oldest—beer has been brewed here since 1666. The present owners have not only preserved the motley collection of post-industrial buildings, but given them a boho reboot, so that they are now home to numerous independent traders, artists, markets, boutiques, restaurants, cafes and bars.

Two other organisations are also key to the festival, and to the cultural renaissance it showcases: jazz re:freshed, who have spent 20 years providing musical career opportunities to young, female, and Black British jazz talent; and Tomorrow's Warriors who, with a similar and even longer self-imposed mission, have nurtured the careers of